Psalms 71

Verse-by-verse explanation

1. Psalms 71:1“Let me never be put to confusion” is not about mental confusion, but about the fear of being humiliated before enemies, as someone whose trust in God would prove misplaced. It is the same opening used in Psalms 25 and 31.
2. Psalms 71:2“Incline thine ear” is a common physical image in the Psalms, like someone bending down to listen closely to a whisper. Here God’s “righteousness” is the basis requested for deliverance, not a threat of punishment.
3. Psalms 71:3“Rock” and “fortress” recall the natural hideouts of the Judean region, clefts and plateaus where fugitives took shelter from pursuers. Calling God this is asking for a permanent refuge, not just a momentary escape.
4. Psalms 71:4“Out of the hand” of the wicked uses a common Hebrew expression: the hand represents power and control over someone, not literal hands. Asking for deliverance “out of the hand” of an enemy is asking to escape his control.
5. Psalms 71:5The psalmist looks back and recalls that he has trusted God “from my youth” — a trust that has already lasted a lifetime. This look back prepares the later request not to be abandoned now, in old age.
6. Psalms 71:6Saying he has been held up “from the womb” and taken “out of my mother’s bowels” is a poetic way of affirming that God’s care began before any conscious memory, as in other psalms that speak of birth (e.g., Psalm 22).
7. Psalms 71:7“A wonder” here is not a compliment: it means something strange, almost an ill omen in others’ eyes, probably because of the psalmist’s continued suffering even after so many years of faithfulness to God.
8. Psalms 71:8Picturing one’s own mouth “filled” with praise all day long is saying that gratitude to God is not a one-time moment but something that continually fills the thoughts and words of the one who trusts Him.
9. Psalms 71:9“The time of old age” shows that this psalm is prayed by someone who has lived long and fears being abandoned right when his strength begins to fail — a rare portrait, within the Psalter, of a prayer prayed in old age.
10. Psalms 71:10“Lay wait for my soul” describes enemies who watch and scheme against someone’s life, not merely gossip. “Take counsel together” shows the threat comes from an organized group, not a lone individual.
11. Psalms 71:11The enemies use the psalmist’s own suffering as proof that God has abandoned him — a cruel argument that also appears in other laments, such as Psalm 22:8, spoken against someone suffering unjustly.
12. Psalms 71:12“Be not far from me” uses physical distance as a metaphor for abandonment: feeling God far away is the same as feeling helpless. The request repeats almost the same words as Psalm 70:5, a common refrain of urgency.
13. Psalms 71:13This request for the enemies’ shame repeats almost word for word Psalm 70:2 (which in turn comes from Psalm 40) — a refrain Hebrew poetry reused across similar psalms, not an accidental copy.
14. Psalms 71:14After describing the enemies’ threat, the psalmist changes tone: instead of despair, he promises continual hope and ever-growing praise — a common device in lament psalms, which tend to end in confidence.
15. Psalms 71:15Saying he does not know “the numbers thereof” of God’s acts of righteousness and salvation is a poetic exaggeration of gratitude: there are so many over a lifetime that it became impossible to count them one by one.
16. Psalms 71:16“I will go in the strength of the Lord God” suggests going out in public, perhaps to the temple, resting on a strength that is not his own: the certainty that only God’s righteousness, not his own merits, will be the subject of his testimony.
17. Psalms 71:17The psalmist recalls that he learned about God “from my youth” and spent his whole life declaring His wondrous works — the same theme of youthful trust that appears in verses 5 and 6.
18. Psalms 71:18“Grayheaded” marks this as one of the few psalms clearly prayed by someone already elderly. The fear is not of death itself, but of dying before he can tell the next generation what God has done.
19. Psalms 71:19“Who is like unto thee!” is a rhetorical question of wonder that appears in several ancient texts (such as Exodus 15:11 and Psalm 89:8) to affirm that no other god or power compares to God.
20. Psalms 71:20It uses the same image found in several other parts of the Psalter for Sheol, the world of the dead pictured as a place beneath the earth. Asking to be brought up “from the depths of the earth” is asking to remain alive, not a reference to resurrection in the later Christian sense.
21. Psalms 71:21Asking God to “increase my greatness” after so much suffering is hoping for a restoration of honor and social standing, not just relief from pain — common after periods of public humiliation.
22. Psalms 71:22The “psaltery” and the harp were stringed instruments used in temple worship. Promising to praise with them is promising a public, musical celebration, not just silent, private gratitude.
23. Psalms 71:23“Redeemed” comes from a commercial and legal term: buying someone back by paying a price, as one would free a slave from debt. Saying the soul was redeemed describes the deliverance as a ransom paid by God.
24. Psalms 71:24The psalm ends with the enemies already confounded and ashamed, as if the request made in the previous verses had already been granted — confidence expressed as though the answer had already arrived.